Astronaut

Astronaut, designation, derived from the Greek words for “star” and “sailor,” commonly applied to an individual who has flown in outer space. More specifically, astronauts are those persons who went to space aboard a U.S.spacecraft. Those individuals who first traveled aboard a spacecraft operated by the Soviet Union or Russia are known as cosmonauts (from the Greek words for “universe” and “sailor”). China designates its space travelers taikonauts (from the Chinese word for “space” and the Greek word for “sailor”).

Erik Gregersen, astronomy and space exploration editor of Encyclopædia Britannica, explaining how to become an astronaut and what training is needed to go into space. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

History and highlights

As of 2011, 520 different individuals from 38 different countries had gone into orbit; 465 of these space fliers were men, and 55 were women. The longest time spent in space on one mission is the 438 days spent aboard the Russian space station Mir by cosmonaut Valery Polyakov in 1994–95. Two U.S. astronauts, Franklin Chang-Díaz and Jerry Ross, made seven spaceflights, the most by any single individual. The youngest person to go into space was Gherman Titov, who was 25 when he flew on the Vostok 2 mission in 1962. The oldest astronaut was John Glenn, who was 77 when he flew on the space shuttle in 1998.

Twenty-one space fliers—4 Russian cosmonauts and 17 American astronauts—have died during spaceflight activities. In January 1967 a three-man crew perished during a ground test of the first Apollo spacecraft; in April 1967 and June 1971, first one and then three cosmonauts died during reentry of their Soyuz vehicles; in January 1986 an entire seven-member crew died when the U.S. space shuttle Challenger exploded shortly after launch; and in February 2003 seven more astronauts were lost when the shuttle Columbia broke up on reentry.

The first seven U.S. astronauts were chosen for Project Mercury in April 1959. They were selected from some 500 candidates, all members of the U.S. military. Each candidate was required to have experience as a pilot of high-performance jet aircraft and, because of the cramped conditions inside the Mercury spacecraft, to be no more than 5 feet 11 inches (180 cm) tall and weigh no more than 180 pounds (82 kg). These astronauts were U.S. Air Force Captains L. Gordon Cooper, Jr., Virgil (“Gus”) Grissom, and Donald (“Deke”) Slayton; Marine Lieutenant Colonel John H. Glenn, Jr.; and Navy Lieutenant M. Scott Carpenter and Lieutenant Commanders Walter M. Schirra, Jr., and Alan B. Shepard, Jr. On May 5, 1961, Alan Shepard made a brief suborbital flight, becoming the first U.S. astronaut to go into space. John Glenn became the first American in orbit with his Feb. 20, 1962, three-orbit flight.

The Soviet Union selected 20 air force pilots from 102 candidates for cosmonaut training in February 1960. These individuals also had to meet restrictions on height (170 cm, or 5 feet 7 inches) and weight (70 kg, or 154 pounds) because of the small size of the Soviet Vostok spacecraft. The identity of these individuals was kept secret until they were actually launched into space. Most of the cosmonaut candidates were between 25 and 30 years old and thus did not have the extensive test pilot experience of their U.S. counterparts. One of these 20 young men, Yury Gagarin, became the first human in space with his April 12, 1961, one-orbit flight.

In 1997 China selected 12 military test pilots, all men, for its first group of taikonaut trainees; the first of these to go up in space, Yang Liwei, made a 14-orbit flight in October 2003 on Shenzhou 5.

In both the United States and the Soviet Union, no women were initially selected for spaceflight training. In 1962 the Soviet Union chose five women as cosmonaut trainees; one of them, Valentina Tereshkova, went into orbit in June 1963, becoming the first woman in space. The United States did not select women for astronaut training until 1978, and the first female U.S. astronaut, Sally Ride, was launched aboard the space shuttleChallenger in June 1983.

Sally Ride, the first U.S. female astronaut to fly into space, aboard the space shuttle Challenger during her maiden flight in June 1983.NASA

The United States selected only pilots as astronauts until 1965, when six scientists with technical or medical degrees were chosen for astronaut training. One of them, geologist Harrison (“Jack”) Schmitt, became a crew member of Apollo 17, the final Apollo mission to the Moon, in December 1972.

Astronaut training

Even though initially most U.S. astronauts were test pilots, this requirement had more to do with their ability to perform effectively in high-stress situations than with their piloting skills, since the spacecraft used in the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs had limited maneuvering capability in orbit and came back to Earth using parachutes for reentry. Since 1978, with the advent of the space shuttle, which functions as a laboratory and operations centre when in orbit and then as a high-speed, difficult-to-control glider as it reenters the atmosphere and flies to a runway landing, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has selected two different types of individuals as astronaut candidates. One group is required to have extensive flying experience in jet aircraft. These astronaut candidates are trained to serve as shuttle pilots and eventually shuttle mission commanders. The second group is chosen to become mission specialist astronauts. These candidates are not required to be pilots (though some are); rather, they are individuals with advanced scientific, medical, or engineering training or experience. Since 1992, in anticipation of participating in missions to the International Space Station (ISS), a number of individuals from various countries have become international mission specialist astronaut candidates.

Robert L. Satcher, Jr., mission specialist astronaut candidate, floating freely aboard a KC-135 aircraft as part of his early training on Oct. 13, 2004.NASA

Mission specialists are trained to have primary responsibility during a mission for operating shuttle or space station systems and carrying out payload and experimental activities. Mission specialists also perform extravehicular activities (space walks). Another mission specialist category (added in 2002) is the educator mission specialist. These individuals are trained to go into space in support of educational activities on Earth.

Astronaut candidates can come from either civilian or military life. All (except the education mission specialist candidates) are required to have a college degree in engineering, life science or physical science, or mathematics. Both men and women are eligible to apply as either a pilot or a mission specialist candidate. A person wishing to become an astronaut must file a formal application with NASA and undergo a rigorous screening process consisting of personal interviews, medical evaluations, and orientation to the space program. According to NASA, those selected are expected to be team players and highly skilled generalists with a certain degree of individuality and self-reliance. The average age of an individual selected as a NASA astronaut candidate has been in the mid-30s. The maximum height for an astronaut candidate is now 6 feet 4 inches (193 cm); the minimum height is 4 feet 10.5 inches (149 cm), though pilots must be at least 5 feet 4 inches (163 cm).

Astronaut candidates participate in an intense one-to-two-year training program at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, in Houston. They learn shuttle and space station systems, guidance and navigation, orbital dynamics, and materials processing as well as mathematics, geology, meteorology, oceanography, astronomy, and physics. They are also trained in land and sea survival, scuba diving, space suits, and weightlessness. After successfully completing their training, candidates are designated NASA career astronauts.

In addition to pilots and mission specialist astronauts, who expect to fly on several space missions during their time at NASA, there is a third category of individuals who have gone into space on the shuttle. These individuals are designated payload specialists. The specialists are required to carry out experiments or payload activities with which they are particularly familiar. Although they are known to the general public as astronauts, payload specialists do not undergo formal astronaut selection or training and are not designated NASA career astronauts. They must, however, have education and training appropriate to their mission responsibilities and must pass a physical examination. A payload specialist for a specific spaceflight is nominated by NASA, a non-U.S. space agency, or a payload sponsor. During the 1980s two members of Congress flew aboard the space shuttle as payload specialists, and teacher Christa McAuliffe was a “teacher in space” payload specialist on the doomed Challenger mission. The first U.S. astronaut to orbit the Earth, John Glenn, returned to space as a shuttle payload specialist in October 1998. The usual expectation is that a payload specialist will make only one spaceflight.

Once an astronaut is assigned to a particular mission, he or she and other members of the crew train together for a number of months to prepare themselves for the specific activities of their spaceflight. This can include Russian classes if they are to be part of a long-duration crew on the ISS. They use a variety of simulators and other equipment during their training to familiarize themselves with the planned mission activities and to react to simulated emergencies and other deviations from normal operations.

International Space Station: transfer of supplies and equipmentAstronaut Franklin R. Chang-Díaz in the International Space Station during transfer of supplies and equipment, June 2002.NASA

With the advent of long-duration missions on the ISS, the distinction between pilot astronauts and mission specialists has become less rigid; an astronaut from either group can be a candidate for assignment to a station mission. Currently, payload specialists are not eligible for long-duration flights. Between their spaceflight assignments, astronauts take on a variety of tasks within NASA, ranging from mission control communicators (maintaining contact with their colleagues in space) to senior managers.

In the Russian space program there have traditionally been two categories of cosmonauts—mission commanders (who are usually pilots) and flight engineers. As in the United States, cosmonaut candidates must undergo a rigorous physical examination, sometimes extending over several months, to assess their capability for long-duration flights. Training for cosmonaut candidates, which happens at the Yury Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre in Star City, Russia, near Moscow, includes two years of general topics related to spaceflight, after which they are designated cosmonauts, and then up to two years of training on spaceflight hardware. Only then may an individual be assigned to a specific mission, with one or more additional years of training required before launch. In contrast to U.S. astronaut mission training, which until the late 1990s emphasized the specific tasks to be accomplished on a short space shuttle mission, formerly Soviet and now Russian training has emphasized the general spaceflight and problem-solving skills associated with longer stays in space. Since the late 1990s, U.S. astronaut training has moved toward a similar approach for those astronauts preparing to stay on the ISS.

In addition to the astronaut training programs of the United States, Russia, and China, which are the only countries with launch vehicles and spacecraft capable of transporting people to space, the 15-country European Space Agency, Japan, and Canada have programs for the selection and training of government-sponsored astronauts that are similar to those of NASA. Individuals selected by other countries to go into space participate in either the U.S. or Russian astronaut training program or both; those training for missions on the ISS may also visit locations in Europe, Japan, and Canada for specialized training related to space station hardware.

A few individuals have traveled into space as private citizens. Some have been sponsored by their employers, as was Japanese television journalist Akiyama Toyohiro, who reported from the Mir space station in December 1990. Others, like American entrepreneurDennis Tito, South African businessman Mark Shuttleworth, American businessman Gregory Olsen, Iranian-born American engineer Anousheh Ansari, Hungarian-born American computer software executive Charles Simonyi, British-born American computer-game developer Richard Garriott, and Canadian performer Guy Laliberté, who made brief trips to the ISS aboard a Russian spacecraft between 2001 and 2009, used their own resources to pay the multimillion-dollar price for the voyage. Such individuals are designated spaceflight participants or “space tourists.”